BOOK I. BLACK CURRANT. 735 



will serve for two acres of ground or more, covered with trees and bushes in the ordinary manner, and 

 will cost very little money indeed. The same pro{x>rtion is to be observed in making a wash for the rest of 

 the trees or bushes." 



4662. Machray procured some tobacco and soft or black soap, and boiled a quarter of a pound of 

 tobacco with one pound of soft soap in about eighteen Scots pints of water, and kept stirring the liquid 

 while boiling with a whisk, in order to dissolve the soap ; this liquor, when milkwarm, or so cool as not 

 to hurt the foliage, he applied to the bushes with a hand-squirt in the evening, and in the morning found 

 all the ground under the bushes covered over with dead caterpillars. This practice he continued for six 

 years, always when he saw any symptoms of the approach of caterpillars. 



4663. Tweedie, in the course of any of the winter months, pares all the earth from under the bushes 

 to the depth of about three inches, into a flat ridge betwixt the rows ; and on the first dry day following, 

 either treads, beats, or rolls these ridges, and trenches the whole down one and a half or two spades deep, 

 observing to tread the foul earth into the bottom of the trench. 



4664. Forsytes method is as follows : " Take some sifted quick-lime and lay it under the bushes ; but 

 do not at first let any of it touch the branches or leaves ; then shake each bush suddenly and smartly, and 

 the caterpillars will fall into the lime ; if the bush be not shaken suddenly, the caterpillars, on being a 

 little disturbed, will take so firm a hold as not easily to be shaken off: After this is done, sift some of the 

 lime over the bushes ; this will drive down those which may have lodged on the branches. The caterpil- 

 lars ought to be swept up next day, and the bushes well washed with clear lime-water mixed with urine ; 

 this will destroy any caterpillars that may still remain, and also the aphides, if there are any on the bushes." 



4665. Sweet first syringes the plants, and then powders them with quick-lime by hand, so that every leaf 

 both above and below is covered with it. This he found destroyed not only gooseberry caterpillars, but 

 the black fly on the peach-tree. (Hprt. Trans, v. 76.) 



4666. Harrison considers, that in the winter season, " the eggs of the insects are deposited in crevices 

 and joints of the tree, also in the ground." In the pruning season, he burns the prunings, and washes the 

 trees with a mixture of quick-lime and water, and then casts in powdered lime among the branches ; or, 

 instead of this, he washes the trees with twelve gallons of water, half a pound of tobacco, and six ounces of 

 black pepper boiled together for half an hour, and used when cold. In the following spring, " just before 

 the trees come into bloom," he sprinkles them with lime-water, and throws on them powdered lime, 

 spreading some at the roots of the tree. Soon after the berries are set, he smokes the trees with straw 

 fires. When summer flies visit the trees, he picks off the leaves on which their eggs are deposited. 

 " This," he says, " is readily done, and very effectual." If they increase very rapidly, he uses lime-water 

 as in spring. (Tr. on Fr. Tr. 348.) 



4667. Our opinion is, that no reliance is to be placed in powdered hot lime alone, for destroying either 

 the insects or their eggs. Hot water, applied in Gibbs's manner ; lime-water, or water and powder of lime, 

 in the manner of Elliot and Sweet ; and digging down, as performed by Tweedie, may be of real service : 

 but the only effectual plan seems to be that of previously hand-picking ; which, however tedious it may 

 seem, will often be found a more economical mode than any of the above. Hand-picking, with the spring- 

 generated kinds, should commence as soon as the eggs are observed on the under sides of the leaves, of a, 

 white color, and not thicker than hairs ; the whole leaf may be picked off, or the eggs brushed or sponged 

 off: with the winter kinds it ought to commence as soon as they leave their nidus in the soil or bark and 

 appear on the leaves. 



4668. Preventive treatment. Sprinkling gooseberry and currant bushes with tar-water, prevents the fly 

 or moth from settling on the plant to lay its eggs ; this must be done early in the spring, for if done after 

 the fruit is set, it will taste of tar. (J. Busch, in Hort. Trans, iv. 568.) 



4669. Forcing. The gooseberry may be forced in pots or boxes placed in pits, or in the peach-house or 

 vinery. Hay plants in pots in November, removes to the peach-house in January, and has ripe fruit in 

 the end of April, which he sends to table growing on the plants. (Hort. Trans, iv. 415.) 



SUBSECT. 5. Slack Currant. Eibes Nigrum, L. (Eng. Bot. 1291.) Pentand. 

 Monog. L. and Cacti, J. Groseille d fruit noir, or Poivrier, Fr. 



4670. The black currant is an humble shrub, with smooth shoots, strong-smelling tri- 

 lobate leaves and hairy racemes, with a solitary one-flowered peduncle at the base of the 

 raceme. The flowers appear in April, of a greenish-white, and the fruit ripens in June and 

 July, and changes from a green to a black color. It is a native of most parts of Eu- 

 rope, especially the more northern parts. It abounds in the woods in the north of Rus- 

 sia ; and in the subalpine regions of Siberia, where the branches and berries are very large 

 and sapid. In Britain, it is found in wet hedges, on the banks of rivers, in alder swamps, 

 and sometimes in woods. 



4671. Use. The fruit, which has a peculiar flavor, and disliked by some, is seldom 

 brought to the dessert ; but it is eaten in puddings and tarts, and made into jellies, and 

 wines. The Russians put the berries into brandy, and the Irish into whiskey, in the same 

 way as the English put cherries ; the Russians also ferment the juice with honey, and so 

 form a strong and palatable wine. Many cottagers, who cannot afford to mix green tea 

 with common bohea, substitute one or two dried leaves of black currant, the flavor pro- 

 duced by which few are so acute as to distinguish from that of a mixture of green and 

 black tea. There are no varieties of the black currant. 



4672. Propagation. By cuttings. See Gooseberry. 



4673. Soil and site. A moist soft soil and shady situation, such as is afforded by borders of north ex- 

 posure is preferable. Miller says, " The fruit is always best when the plants are placed in an open situ- 

 ation, and light loamy soil." 



4674. Final planting. As only a few plants are in general required for private gardens, these maybe 

 placed at the distances recommended for gooseberries, in the margin of a shady border, or against a wall 

 of a north exposure. Neill says, it produces most fruit as a standard, but the largest berries when trained 

 to a wall. 



4675. Mode of bearing. The black currant bears chiefly on the shoots of the preceding year, and also 

 from snags or spurs, which, however, are less abundant, and of smaller size in the black currant than in 

 the gooseberry or red currant. 



4676. Pruning. Attend to the general directions giving for pruning gooseberries, observing to depend 

 less on spurs than on the preceding year's wood, cutting out the old as it becomes naked and barren, to 

 make room for the new. 



4677. Insects and diseases. The black currant is seldom attacked by insects ; though, like the elder- 

 tree, it has its own variegated caterpillars, which sometimes reduce it to a state of complete nudity. (4657.) 



4768. Gathering the fruit. See Red Currant. 



4679. Forcing. The black currant may be forced in pots like the gooseberry. In Russia this is often 

 done for the sake of the fragrance of the leaves. 



